I should add that I have been pruning off the vigorous vertical water sprouts, leaving the less vigorous horizontal shoots–as I would prune my apples. Am I making an error here? These verticals are very vigorous–growing 2 to 3 feet in a season!
Pears can be very slow and I don’t know about the benefits of dwarfing rootstock but 87 isn’t really in the category, is it?
If you want pears in a hurry, Harrow Sweet is quite precocious and once it starts bearing is does so more consistently than any I grow. It is likely my entire pear crop this year with 7 or 8 other varieties likely blank this year. My nursery trees do have some Bartlett’s and a scattering of other pears on them.
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Marc,
With vigorous shoots, I bend down some to make new side branches. I choose ones that are in a good position and prune off others.
I have Harrow Sweet on OHxF97. It is supposed to be 2/3 of the stadard size. This is its 4 th leaf. It barely grow 5 ft. I think 3 things contribute to its not being vigorous, being next to a row of big pine trees, letting it fruit the 2 nd year, ( only a couple) and only getting part sun.
If it will be small, so be it. I love the fruit and its precocity.
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It’s been 3 weeks since I did the hinge cuts on my pluots. At first everything looked fine. The leaves are still green, shoots are growing. After a closer look at the actual hinge cuts I have some concern. There is a clear jelly like substance coming out of the cuts. It is totally clear. Almost looks like hand sanitizer wiped it off and the cuts look fine. No signs of insect damage or other pests.
Anyone know what’s going on here? I’ve seen jelly like substances on cherry trees before but that stuff had an amber color to it. I’m not sure if that was gummosis or something else but I’ve not seen anything like this on pluot
When stone fruit trees are injured they produce that resin as a defence. If the trees are growing normally they are also healing rapidly. It is surgery, after all. It will leave scars but heal stronger than ever.
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Thanks for the reassurance Alan. That makes me feel better about it.